The ease with which Alister Ong lives his life feels as breezy as a waft of the supernatural. With a smile as bright as the light in his eyes, he chalks it up to one thing: Grace.

The word peppers his speech as he recounts his adventures with God, never mind that for all of his 29 years he has been a PWD – “Person With Disability”.

He has been on more mission trips than the average church-goer, shared his testimony before thousands across Asia, and been a godly inspiration to countless others who’ve searched him out in cyberspace.

Recognised regionally for being an advocate of societal diversity and inclusion, he is Vice-Chairperson of The Purple Parade, sits on the Singapore Government’s Reach Advisory Panel, is a recipient of the Goh Chok Tong Enable Award, and is included in the National Council of Social Services’ 40-Under-40 programme.

Earthly honour: Alister’s advocacy work for the disabled was recognised with a Goh Chok Tong Enable Award in 2020.

The multitude of accolades is testament to him being “differently abled”. He tells Salt&Light, however, that it all began with a decision that was not entirely of him.

“Growing up, two things came very naturally. One is the disability. The other one is the existence of God. I grew up knowing that God is there and God is with me.”

Going solo

He’s never known what it’s like to be able to walk. 

He did not cry at birth, he explains simply, which limited the oxygen flow to his limbs and left him with cerebral palsy. 

Despite the inconvenience, his parents took him and his younger brother to Sunday service at Elim Church, although there were seasons (like during exams) that the routine took a backseat.

When he was in secondary school, friends invited him to their church, City Harvest, and he agreed to go.

He would never look back.

Convincing his parents that he could make the two-hour trip solo, from his home in Bukit Panjang to the City Harvest service at Singapore Expo, wasn’t easy. He had never been out on his own before, but he wasn’t going to let the unknown stop him.

After going once, he kept going.

“That was when I realised that, hey, every Sunday it’s a decision now whether I want to go to church or not. The responsibility and the stewardship of this decision lies with me and not my parents.

“Previously it was a very routine, natural thing, whether we went or not. I didn’t have to think about it or even how significant it was.

“But then it became a very active decision and it wasn’t an easy decision because church was 10am at Expo. I had to leave my home at 8. Imagine waking up at 6-something on a Sunday to get ready. Who does that?” he laughs.

Once at Bukit Panjang station he would board the LRT headed towards Choa Chu Kang. From there, he’d get onto the north-south line to Jurong East. Next, he’d swivel to the east-west line and ride the train all the way to Tanah Merah.

“From Tanah Merah it’s one stop to Expo. The buses then were not accessible for me. I had to go one big round.”

Two hours to get to church

The teenager in him relished the journey to independence.

By this time it was around 2008, and the train stations were fitted with wider gantries suited to the wheelchair-bound. Previously, his mother had to lift him and his wheelchair across the barriers.

The community he found at City Harvest was welcoming and warm. Alister was accepted by his fellow youths exactly as he was. They accepted that he needed help with everything – even to understand that he was not an anomaly.

Love in action: Alister’s CHC friends extended the grace of acceptance and showed him that he was one of them.

“It was probably after I started to go to church by myself that I started having a personal relationship with God. It was a more active decision to pursue Him and to find out more about who this God really is.

“At the same time, it was God drawing me. My faith became more of a relationship than just a religion.”

No one to turn to

Previously, loneliness had been his constant companion.

As a toddler he would lie tummy-down on the floor and drag himself to move.

He played with cars, buses and trains, or fixed Lego blocks for entertainment.

Joy comes from within: As a baby, Alister learnt to pull himself along on his tummy and enjoyed the sense of accomplishment it gave him.

“I was quite okay playing by myself, until I had my younger brother. After that we kind of played together a bit, and then I realised that actually a younger brother might not always be fun,” he jokes, laughing heartily.

“He pulled my hair, pulled off my glasses, and he started repeating everything I said!”

He grins at the memory, then sobers up as he remembers entering Primary 1 at Bukit Panjang Primary School. It marked a paradigm shift for him, going from “thinking that everything is alright with me to realising that I’m different from others”.

The school’s layout was such that wheelchair accessibility was limited. Thanks to an arrangement made through the AWWA Community Integration Service programme, his classroom was relocated to the ground floor. 

The library and other amenities, however, were beyond his reach – even the school hall, which was on the second level. Alister could not be seated with his cohort in the hall for mass exams and took his papers alone, in his classroom.

“Sometimes after exams, everyone would stay back in the hall and watch movies. I would be on the ground floor in the classroom, wondering why the class hadn’t come back.

“Or, during those weeks when the teachers needed to start marking and there were no more lessons already, all the students would be in the assembly hall doing something.

“I would be alone. Back then schools did not have lifts.

“I just passed the time by staring into space, doing nothing. I didn’t cry. I knew it was not intentional. I was just forgotten unintentionally.

“What could I do? There was no one to turn to. There was only God.”

“Aiyah sian, why this body?”

Only later in life did it dawn on him that those episodes of repeatedly being overlooked did leave a residue of trauma. 

Having to grapple with the thought that he’d been forgotten bred an insecurity he couldn’t really put a finger on.

He would sigh: “I need to do something about it, but what can I do? Do I feel so insignificant to the people around me?”

Those caught in such a predicament are either boastful to mask their fears, or withdrawn.

“They’re resigned,” he says. “They just hide in a hole and wallow in self-pity and opt out of every activity they can.”

Quietly, he adds: “Those were very real choices for me.”

The unresolvable mix of emotions grew during his years at Westspring Secondary School. 

“If I drop something on the floor, I would think, ‘Why can’t I even pick it up?’

“Or if it’s too far away: ‘Aiyah! Sian (slang for ‘frustrating’). Why this body?’ ”

The negative thoughts were subconscious, but present.

Still, he’s never hated God. “Maybe there were times of not being able to accept the broken body that I’m living in. The struggles that I had were more of feeling not good enough, rather than blaming God.

“I didn’t know that God actually had a plan and a purpose for me. (Jeremiah 29:11) My life was empty and directionless.

“And so, when I realised that I’m loved by God, realised that I don’t have to compare myself with others, then I started to go towards what God really intended for my life.

“God’s love filled me and healed my broken heart”: Alister blossomed when he opened himself up to the prayers and fellowship of his CHC community.

“When I started to go to church and receive prayers from my pastors, my leaders, my friends, and went up for altar calls … God’s love filled me and healed my broken heart, and I understood that I’m fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalm 139:14)

That was the first breakthrough.

Divinely orchestrated mission trip

The next breakthrough came with his first mission trip, which was part of the curriculum of City Harvest’s School of Theology, in which he enrolled in 2013 while waiting for his university studies to begin. The destination: Philippines.

To go, or not to go? Quelling his own self-doubt about travelling with non-family members, he told his cell group leader: “I think it’s still possible. I don’t know how, but I’m sure God will make a way for it to happen.”

God did. His family’s Filipino helper accompanied him on the flight to Manila and back, helped him at each day’s beginning and end, and spent the in-between hours visiting with her family.

“God divinely just orchestrated everything!”

Sharing his testimony before a church gathering of 50 also came about unexpectedly.

Impromptu, Alister bared his heart about living with cerebral palsy: “I told them how down and low I felt, how challenging life was, but it’s through God’s grace that I’m still serving Him, still loving Him, and I’m going to start university soon!”

Faithful to the core: Alister’s helper of 29 years, Erlinda Saludes, has looked after him since he was a baby.

Those present responded that they could see the goodness of God and were very blessed by what He was doing in Alister’s life.

“That really encouraged me to realise that maybe there are greater things that God has for even me.

“God calls every one of us, right? Maybe I’m part of that as well; what He says in His word is true, that there’s a hope, there’s a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

“That verse really helped me a lot, because everything was hopeless. When I was in primary and secondary school, people would ask, ‘What do you want to do in the future when you grow up?’

“I didn’t know. What could I even do, right? There was no purpose to my life, no vision. (Proverbs 29:18)

“Only when I started to give and started to serve, that I realised, hey! I can not only receive but I can also give. As a person with disability, yes, I need to receive a lot of help but that does not limit what I can give.

“I started to realise that the words that come out from our mouths, including mine, as a child of God, are to speak life.

“I can speak life!” (John 6:63)

Read part 2 of Alister Ong’s story here.

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